Battle of Lutzen

The Battle of Lutzen occurred on 6 November 1632 during the Thirty Years' War. It was a pyrrhic Swedish victory, with King Gustavus Adolphus dying during a reckless cavalry charge.

Background
Following the Battle of the Alte Veste, the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus advanced south into Swabia, believing that Albrecht von Wallenstein's Catholic army would be hindered by illness and posed no threat to him. However, Wallenstein's army quickly recovered and instead marched north to crush Protestant Saxony, forcing Gustavus to rapidly march north. On 6 November 1632, the Swedish and Catholic armies met in battle at Lutzen, near Leipzig.

Battle
Wallenstein anchored his line on the Leipzig post road; north of the road, his right-wing imperial battery was positioned in front of three windmills, while a ring of gardens full of man-high mud walls were used as shelter for musketeers. The Imperial army formed a compact and deep defensive formation, and the Imperial infantry, no longer deployed in tercios, were deployed in three battle lines. The cavalry was positioned on the wings to prevent encirclement, with arquebusiers sitting behind them. Wallenstein also intuitively placed 150 musketeers in front of each cavalry wing to protect them from the typical Swedish tactics.

Meanwhile, Gustavus Adolphus gave rousing prayers and speeches to his Swedish and German troops as they approached the battlefield. The Swedes crossed the Flossgraben River with makeshift bridges and then formed up into the traditional two-line battle formation with intervals between each unit to allow retreat to the reat. Regimental artillery occupied these gaps during the battle. The battle began with an hour-long artillery exchange, and Wallenstein sent Lutzen ablaze to prevent it from falling into Swedish hands. Gustavus, fearing being outflanked, had Dodo zu Knyphausen send some of his reserve to bolster the right-wing cavalry. The entire Swedish line began to advance as one, and Gustavus Adolphus commanded his Finnish cavalry to attack the Croats and cuirassiers, sweeping the Imperial left from the field. However, Gottfried zu Pappenheim arrived on the battlefield with 3,000 additional Imperial cavalry, stopping the Swedish flanking attack; Pappenheim was mortally wounded by a cannonball in the process. Imperial artillery and entrenched musketeers inflicted heavy losses on the Swedes before they captured the road and the left-wing Imperial battery. Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar then advanced on the gardens and the windmill battery, advancing under a smokescreen created by the burning city of Lutzen. An hours-long engagement began as the Saxons started their attack, and, on the right flank of the Swedish army, Gustavus Adolphus and some of his Smalander cavalry charged into their battle to rally their men. Gustavus was wounded in the arm, and an Imperial cuirassier recognized the King and shot him again in the back. Gustavus' entourage fled and abandoned their King, and he was shot in the temple after being encircled and interrogated by Imperial cavalrymen. The Imperial center-left front line fell to massed salvos of musket and cannon fire from the elite Swedish regiments, and the Swedes engaged in a brutal melee with the Imperial melee; the Swedish army was flanked and destroyed. The Imperial fortifications on the left pinned down the Swedish flank there, and the leaderless right flank also stagnated. Before the Swedish army could collapse, the army withdrew, and Duke Bernhard assumed command of the army. He rallied his troops and moved the reserves to the front line, and the depleted armies engaged again. Massive cannonades shredded infantry regiments so thoroughly that two-thirds of some regiments were lost, and, by nightfall, the Imperial windmill battery fell to the Swedes. Wallenstein was forced to signal a retreat, believing that there was no hope for victory. The unmitigated slaughter left both sides with heavy losses, and, while the Swedes were victorious, Gustavus' death changed the balance of power in Germany.